Gordon leads Bulls past Wizards

Gordon scored nine of his 22 points in the fourth quarter as the
Bulls overcame an early double-digit deficit to defeat the
Washington Wizards, 95-84, on Wednesday.

Luol Deng scored 20 points and Tyrus Thomas added 14 off the
bench for Chicago, which has alternated wins and losses over its
last seven contests.

The Bulls, who were expected to be one of the challengers for
the Eastern Conference crown, began their season 2-10 before
winning four of five.

They had to overcome a big performance from Wizards forward
Caron Butler, who had 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for
his second career triple double.

"It's always tough to lose any night when you put so much out
there on the court, especially because the last couple of days I
haven't been feeling well, me and Antawn (Jamison)," Butler
said. "(Assistant coach) Phil Hubbard also wasn't feeling well,
but we still managed. No excuses though, you tip your hat to
Chicago because they played good basketball and got a win."

Chicago, which trailed 25-12 in the first quarter, now has
beaten Washington three straight times.

The Bulls were able hang in when the Wizards shot a paltry
3-of-24 in the second period.

"We fell in love with the jump shot in the second quarter, and
they were capitalizing on our misses - getting out in
transition," Butler said. "They had like 19 points off
turnovers."

Gordon and Deng were the catalysts late in the game to help the
Bulls pull out the win.

After Butler made a short jumper that gave the Wizards an 80-79
lead with 4:11 remaining, the Bulls went on a 12-0 spurt capped
by a layup by Gordon to take command with 64 seconds left.

"As the game went on, we gradually played better and better,"
Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "We got good activity out of our
young, big guys. We made some good decisions, played good
defense, and were able to pull away."

Gordon, who connected on 6-of-16 - including 3-of-5 from 3-point
range, had five points in the run. Deng also added five in the
spurt.

"When we get stops late in the game, our tempo stays pretty
up-and-down, which I think really favors us," said Bulls guard
Kirk Hinrich, who had eight points, six rebounds and four
assists.

Thomas had eight points in the fourth for Chicago, which also
received help from rookie reserve Aaron Gray, who chipped in
with 10 and 10 rebounds.

"Tyrus was getting open looks and knocking them down," Skiles
said. "The main thing that happened was we started stopping
them on occasion and got the ball up the floor for some easy
baskets. And then we used Aaron. Aaron made a couple of good
passes out of the post and he rebounded the ball well."

Gray, a rookie out of Pittsburgh, had career highs in points,
rebounds, assists (five) and minutes (29).

"Coming in as a second-string guy, you've got to bring some
energy to the team, and I was just trying to find the best way
to do that," Gray said. "Sometimes, I needed to be a post
presence making outlet passes. You really just have to have a
feel for the game and take what the defense gives you. This is
what I signed up for. It was a lot of fun."